PAGE ONE -- PASTORAL CLEARLAKE - A TOUGH PLACE TO GROW UP / Teen's Slaying Jars a Community

Glen Martin, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published
4:00 am PST, Friday, January 12, 1996

1996-01-12 04:00:00 PDT Clearlake, Lake County -- The countryside around this lakeside town is starting to green up from the winter rains, and the air is as clear as gin. In a couple of months the redbud will bloom, highlighting the hills with splashes of magenta. On Clear Lake itself, big bass jump and western grebes engage in elaborate courtship rituals. The limpid water reflects the intensely blue sky and billowing cumulus clouds.

But in spite of its bucolic splendor, isolated Lake County seems to breed more than its share of misery. And with people here so closely knit, crime exerts a deeper pull on the citizenry than it does in big cities simply because everybody knows both the victims and the accused. One way or the other, everyone is involved.

So when four teenage defendants were arraigned late last month on murder charges for the killing of 14-year-old Mitchell Ozier, it was not strictly a legal matter.

For almost everyone in the county, it was personal.

By all accounts, Ozier was a typical teenager. A freshman at
Lower Lake High School
, he was a lighthearted boy who doted on collecting baseball cards.

"He used to come in here," said the owner of a local sports memorabilia shop. "He was a good kid, an average kid. A lot like other kids."

Ozier's aunt, Barbara Hooten, describes her nephew as "just a happy, happy kid. I can't say he had any great ambitions -- he just wanted to get through high school."

Because he did not get along with his mother's boyfriend, Ozier lived in Clearlake, population 25,000, with his grandmother, Anneleis Jefferson, who also had legal guardianship over his younger brother and sister.

In recent weeks he had spent much of his time with Wendy Murphy, a 17-year-old with long brown hair who had a baby by another Clearlake youth, Jeremy Marquez, 16.

Ozier was smitten with Murphy. Because of his large build and relatively mature demeanor, she thought he was older than 14 and reciprocated his interest. This made Marquez jealous, and he repeatedly threatened Ozier. During one confrontation, according to Jefferson, Ozier beat up Marquez, ostensibly because the older boy had struck Murphy.

For her part, Murphy seemed to welcome the affections of both Ozier and Marquez.

"She played them against each other," said one Clearlake teenager. "She liked all the attention."

On the night of December 14, Ozier walked from his grandmother's house to visit Murphy in her apartment at a nearby housing complex. He never returned home. The family notified police, who listed Ozier as a runaway. Unmollified, family members organized search parties and began combing the oak-studded suburbs of the town. Police subsequently declared Ozier missing and also organized searches.

Five days after Ozier disappeared, his body was discovered, partially obscured by brush, behind Murphy's apartment complex. He had been stabbed numerous times.

Clearlake police arrested Murphy, Marquez and two friends, Richard Munoz, 16, and Elise Schwind, 17, on charges of murder. All had been at Murphy's apartment the night Ozier disappeared. A hearing is scheduled for February 1 to determine whether they will be tried as adults. Of the four, only Munoz has an extensive juvenile criminal record, primarily for assault and burglaries, according to authorities.

Prosecutors say they think Marquez and Munoz killed Ozier shortly after he arrived at the apartment by stabbing him with a knife and beating him with a wooden post. The four teenagers reportedly then hid the body outside.

In ensuing days, Murphy and Schwind participated in the search for Ozier, said Jefferson, the grandmother.

Murphy "was in our house all day Sunday (three days after Ozier's disappearance)," Jefferson said.

The four youths also seemed preternaturally calm at their arraignment in Lake County Superior Court in Lakeport, sometimes smirking, sometimes laughing softly. Their apparent ease caused one of Ozier's aunts to burst out angrily, "Funny, isn't it!"

The courtroom was divided into two camps. On one side of the aisle, Ozier's extensive family and many high school chums sat in obvious anger and distress. Across the way, a few relatives of the defendants slumped in their seats, their misery palpable.

One thing seemed to unite the two sides: a disbelief that such things could even be taking place.

"We were all basically friendly to each other," said Ozier's cousin, Nicole Clasen, shaking her head and wiping back tears. "That's why this doesn't make any sense. No sense at all."

A similar incredulity seemed at work in the community at large. Before the arraignment began, a woman strolling by the courtroom greeted the mother of one of the suspects by name.

"Well, hello, what are you doing here?" the passer-by asked.

When she found out her friend's son was a suspect in Ozier's murder, she cried in anguish, "Oh, no, I can't believe it! I just can't believe it!" Then she put her arms around her friend, holding her tightly as the mother cried.

But while many county residents were clearly appalled at the brutality of Ozier's murder, not all were surprised by it.

"In a lot of ways, (Clearlake) is a big dump," said Steve Resheff, a 20-year resident. "It has grown fast, but the services and public commitment haven't kept up with the growth."

Resheff said Clearlake is full of aimless, poorly socialized teenagers -- and the town suffers for it.

"There's a lot of vandalism, and four or five homes are burglarized a week," he said.

Indeed, Clearlake's main avenue and rural side streets do seem unusually busy with roaming adolescent boys, most of whom are disinclined to talk about the Ozier case.

"Ain't got s-- to say, now leave me the f-- alone," said one boy when questioned. His response was by no means atypical.

While the murder has left the people of Lake County in a prolonged state of shock, the apparent root causes for the incident -- dysfunctional families and alienated youth -- are old news for the area.

Teen rage, say authorities, is by no means restricted to the inner city. Economically depressed rural areas can also account for widespread sociopathic behavior by young people.

"In some ways, it can be worse in an area like this," said Carol Huchingson, director for the Lake County social services agency. "There is literally nothing for kids to do -- no recreational outlets and very little part-time employment appropriate for young people."

Drugs and the county's poor economy likewise contribute to the dire situation, Huchingson added. "The methamphetamine production problem is very big here," she said, "and I'm absolutely sure kids are affected by it."

Huchingson said that Clearlake is especially noteworthy for its swollen public assistance rolls and that "unemployment in the county as a whole runs steadily at 15 percent. That all puts a lot of stress on families."

Unfortunately, said Huchingson, government cannot take up the slack.

"We have increasing numbers of parents up here who are just abandoning their teenagers," said Huchingson. "They tell us their kids are incorrigible, that they can't do a thing with them, and they try to make us take them. But that's no solution."

It is possible the murder has changed Clearlake for the better.

"I've heard that the atmosphere has changed in Clearlake because of this," said Huchingson. "People are saying that you don't see as many kids running around, that parents are keeping a closer eye on them. This thing has really devastated people. They don't want to see anything like it happen again."

But it is not clear whether Ozier's murder is simply an anomalous blip in Lake County's crime statistics or the start of an ominous escalation in the region's teen violence.

Residents are hoping for the best -- but bracing for the worst.

"This situation (Ozier's murder) has already wrecked so many young lives, and it isn't over yet," said one town merchant grimly. "You feel a lot of tension from these kids. They're carrying a lot of grudges. I'm really worried."